État de siège is Diane Dufresne’s nineteenth album, this time created jointly with Michel Cusson. It’s a daring project by two visionaries looking for new emotions. It all started with Cusson’s virtual performances on YouTube, which delighted the locked-down singer during the pandemic.
Thrilled as she was by the explorations of the screen composer – who’s currently working on the new season of the TV series Dumas – she gave him a call. The Cusson matrix is unique and in high demand.
Paroles & Musique wanted to know more about their creative process. Dufresne kindly gave us an interview, to which we’ve joined the best excerpts of our interview with Michel Cusson. Apart from his daily two hours of tennis, Cusson closes himself off in his creative den to extract bits of song, unusual sonic climates, and sound vignettes in support of the dialogue and images of forthcoming episodes of the aforementioned Dumas.
“The pandemic was no walk in the park for anyone, but it wasn’t as difficult for me because I’m quite solitary,” says Dufresne. “Working with Michel is very motivating and inspiring. Watching him work is amazing, it’s like seeing a performance by a great dancer or singer; you feel like he’s giving you his talent.”
I Need a Chum
Cusson: “My initial reaction when she called me? Surprised and flattered. Diane Dufresne’s songs over my music? It’s very courageous. She chose 11 tracks from my 125-plus virtual performances. She was a loyal watcher of Michel Cusson en direct, and she watched those performances more than once! Initially, she wanted to make a jazz album. When she reached out to me, what she wanted was to put lyrics on those existing instrumentals. I told her we could try, but it wasn’t easy for her, because my musical realm can be de-stabilizing.”
Writing lyrics to existing instrumental, vaguely jazz, but more avant-garde tracks? “Yup,” Dufresne giggles, proud of her feat. “I’ve never written an entire album. It took months to write these, but it was a joy you can’t even imagine. I’m used to writing concepts for a show, but writing with absolute freedom, for music I’ve chosen, was a beautiful challenge.”
Cusson agrees: “She wrote lyrics over my melody and guitar solo, and she’d present what she’d written by speaking or sing-songing on the phone while the music played on her sound system. That’s how the creative rough draft of the songs on État de Siège came to be. We spent no more than maybe two hours in the same room. The rest of the time, we just exchanged files. I’ve become a Dropbox expert over time!”
“When I listened to his guitars,” Dufresne continues, “I heard characters, laughter, crying. I heard travels in his guitars that come at you from all over the place.”
On the Same Wavelength
Select the image to access the YouTube video of the Diane Dufresne and Michel Cusson song “Aurore Montréal”
But that’s unsurprising, coming from two artists so unafraid of experimenting. The duo took out their sculpting tools to carve a subtle, varied, and surprisingly vigorous album, with the charm of precarious balance. État de siège is, at its core, an urban tale Dufresne imagined, where several characters, each with their own destiny, go through the 24 hours of the same day.
“Machines, telephones, gadgets, all that’s overwhelming,” she says. “When you see Michel in his studio, it’s all so sophisticated and cutting-edge, but as soon as he plays his guitar, he becomes human. He’s a great musician who’s remarkably rigorous. Two intense people together will create sparks; we don’t know where we’re going, but we laugh, chat, and circle back to the song. We gave each other complete freedom.”
Based on her observations, Dufresne delivers ferocious poetry, “but there’s also a lot of humour and derision in my texts.” One fact remains: the string of words pouring from her mouth has found an ideal musical setting.
Says Dufresne: “There are things to say about how I feel right now. We live in a world and age that’s changing rapidly, no matter how young or old you are. I was thinking about those people on Highway 40 who turn around and look at the people in the car next to them. It’s pretty special,” she laughs. “You find yourself in your car, in a state of siege, with the radio talking about war, and other disasters. When I go out to do public things concerning work (like promoting an album, or giving a concert), it’s my duty to know everything that’s going on in our world.”
News anchors Sophie Thibault and Paul Arcand give the story a realistic dimension. “The characters in the story can also be real,” explains the artist, currently is the object of the exhibition Aujourd’hui, hier et pour toujours at Montréal’s Arsenal.
Producer Toby Gendron reunited with his muse just long enough to “place” her voice. “Michel’s notes are quite high, so to get there I would sing an octave lower,” says Dufresne. “The evolution of tones represents a huge amount of work, because the lyrics have to sound good. You have to give the illusion that you’re not really singing, but that you’re saying something. I mean, tonalities are not something you come up with on the corner of a table – they take weeks of work.”
When we float the idea that État de siège is a collection of songs about the human condition, stress, anxiety, the vagaries of life, its uncertainties, its fears… “Well, thank you very much,” she says. “I really appreciate it. It means a lot to me because we’re slowly losing our humanity. Maybe it’s because I’m older, but I have a vision and a perspective, and when I think about artificial intelligence, for example… It’s so dangerous! We have to stay human in everything we do, from now on. I’ll still sing ‘Oxygène’ and ‘Hymne à la beauté du monde,’ even if saying what you think about the present can sometimes be risky.”